Thailand

Senior Southeast Asia representative Shawn Crispin this week presented CPJ's concerns about new media visa restrictions for foreign reporters based in Thailand to a group of Bangkok-based ambassadors. The controversial measures, announced last month by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, are scheduled to come into force on March 21. The text of Crispin's speech follows:

For the past several weeks journalists and media
organizations in Thailand have been preparing for a fresh round of
confrontation between anti-government protesters and government security
forces. An attempt to paralyze the nation's capital through a protester-led,
month-long shutdown began
today.

Tags:

EDITOR'S NOTE: A court
in Thailand ruled today that Italian photojournalist Fabio Polenghi was
shot and killed by a bullet fired by a soldier during a government crackdown on
street protesters on May 19, 2010. The inquest ruling established the
circumstances surrounding his death but failed to apportion blame to any
individual military commanders or politicians in power at the time.

Elisabetta Polenghi,
Fabio's sister, indicated after the trial that she will pursue criminal charges
to bring those directly responsible for her brother's death to account. CPJ
Senior Southeast Asia Representative Shawn Crispin was in attendance at today's
verdict and at an evening press conference with Elisabetta Polenghi at the Foreign
Correspondent's Club of Thailand. The following are excerpts of Crispin's
statement at the press conference:

To head off rising tensions between supporters of Prime
Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and cartoonist Somchai Katanyutanan, who faces
possible criminal defamation charges for critical comments he posted on his
personal Facebook page, Thailand's government has to make sure police fully
investigate this weekend's attack on Thai
Rath, the country's largest circulation daily newspaper. The government's
public sensitivity to expression such as Somchai's has spurred recent political
violence in Thailand, including threats against journalists.

At online discussion sites all over the world, comments are
posted on the Web as soon as they are written. People argue, inform, express
anger, and voice fears. Some say things in the heat of the moment that they
might go on to regret. Others are elliptical and obscure. The enabling of such
conversations is an important modern method of discovering and re-telling the
news, and encourages previously uninvolved readers of the news to help gather
and disseminate it--especially in times when traditional media is censored or
afraid.

Earlier today, press and human rights groups from around the
world heard that the decision in the case of Chiranuch "Jiew"
Premchaiporn, the manager of Thai online news site Prachatai, was being delayed yet another month. Chiranuch is
charged under Thailand's Computer Crime Act for 10 counts of not deleting
apparently anti-monarchy comments on Prachatai's
online discussion boards.

Earlier this month, I spoke as an
expert witness in the ongoing trial of Chiranuch Premchaiporn, the editor of
Thailand's Prachatai.com website, who is being criminally prosecuted under that
country's Computer Crime Act and Lesé Majesté laws. The crime involves online
posts allegedly disrespectful to Thailand's monarchy, but Chiranuch herself
is not accused of originating or posting the commentary.

Tags:

Three Southeast
Asian journalists--Cambodia's Hang Chakra, Malaysia's Zulkiflee Anwar Ul Haque,
or Zunar, and Thailand's Chiranuch Premchaiporn--were among the 48 awardees of
the Hellman/Hammett grant,
given to writers targeted with political persecution, who were recognized today
by Human Rights Watch for their commitment to press freedom.